Lock down is driving us all mad with non sailing depression, why just the other day I heard from a disgruntled J owner lamenting the lack of sailing. Sitting on a half drunk box of Coronas, complaining about the extra weight he is putting on with the ‘stay at home and consume’ lifestyle.
And that my friends, leads me to the things we shall have to remember if and when Chairman Dan ever lets us go sailing again. ‘What’s this rope for’, ‘ah that’s a very important rope and that’s another very important rope’ as one of my crew said to one of our new Thursday night crew. Yes we have a boat full of ropes, sheets, lines and all those other things that will have escaped our attention for so long and they are all very important.
Then there is the paperwork, the electronic sign in … remember to do that or suffer the embarrassment to your crew as you meekly admit all their hard effort has been in vain. To the bar skipper … and have that wallet ready !
Now are you ready for CCW, this is the new factor we have yet to come to grips with. It won’t be easy, it will be a messy calculation we’ll all have to make to get racing again, especially for the Nationals where we’ll have to factor in interstate politics and shenanigans.
CCW will be a calculation taking in state and city lock downs, days lost to the corona, movement interstate to escape the rot, a series of calculations to rival Bitcoin mining – and this just to allow you to go racing against your fellow sufferers.
Get out those scales skippers, it’s just the first step to understanding and complying with your new CCW, your Covid Corrected Weight.
The collective crew girth has expanded along with the weight and something has to be done about it. So your new CCW will be a calculation to bring your lockdown excesses back to the standard 400kg. Based on the lockdown CCF (Covid Correction Factor) established on the number of days you have been in lockdown, divided by the number of crew still able to fit on the rail and multiplied by the number of boats entered and divided by the average wind strength expected in the regatta, a CCF will enable your crew to weigh in at a higher weight as long as the corrected weight comes back under 400kg.
Melbourne boats will benefit most by this due to the larger number of locked down days and it is anticipated that the max actual weigh in weight will be in the region of 430kg. Sydney boats will probably only reach half that actual weight before going over the corrected 400kg. South Australian boats will barely register any change.
There are penalties to be factored in for skippers that have tried to escape the lockdown by moving to other states (Ron) and a negative CCF will be applied here so that they may only be able to weigh in up to around 370kg which will then be corrected up to the 400kg limit.
Naturally there will be different State Associations arguing their different CCFs and this is to be all settled by the National Association in time for the expected revival of um … J24 yacht racing.
Photo Credit Nathan Goss